


The Pain Behind His Smile                    (A Christmas Special)

by BlossomingDesire



Category: Final Fantasy XII, League of Legends, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 00:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9048481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlossomingDesire/pseuds/BlossomingDesire
Summary: We escaped, we gave up everything, but we found everything we really needed.
A special post for the holidays, basically imagine your favorite OTP running away from whatever conflict they are wrapped up in to be together. Feel free to change all the pronouns I used. The ships above are just suggestions, pairings I could see this happening with. Enjoy, and please comment. Inspired by both real events and my recent playing of ff12





	

The Pain Behind His Smile 

 

I had little recollection of how we got here, after all today had seemed almost like a dream. I guess in the end none of the details are really that important, just the fact that we had managed to get here. _Here of all places_. Only the gods knew how he had managed to guide us here. It had been a long trek into the mountains with no destination. Perhaps it was luck, perhaps it was fate that we ended up finding this old abandoned cabin, perhaps. Either way this bit of luck was a godsend after being out in the blizzard all day, out in the cold mountain snows. Despite the bite of the cold I think that anything would be better than what we left behind, even in the desolate waste. Regardless our dumb luck had payed off, or he knew where he was going after all. Somehow I doubt both of those though. After all coincidence has a way of giving itself over to the inevitable. 

To think, I would first regret my decision to run, but now I couldn't help to be glad to be here. Not only that but be here with him. Despite everything that had happened we, _of all people,_  had managed to escape. Despite all of his values, all of his predisposed affiliations, despite all of his status, despite all of his _stubbornness_ , despite the uncertainty of our future, he had abandoned it all in a single moment. He had abandoned it all _for me._  Of all the people in the world, after all of it was said and done, he choose _me._  I still can't believe it. It felt like something that just would never happen, and that made it all the more special. 

How cold it is, but I suppose that we left behind a different kind of chill for a more natural one. So much violence, so much pointless conflict. And for what? It didn't seem worth it in the end. I suppose it got to cold, and in the end that was why we both left. I can't help but think how much hatred is like ice. At the beginning it can look as though it has a smooth cool surface, it might even look noble or beautiful, but the edges are bound to grow ragged and sharp. Eventually all those who spend to long in contact with it get bitten, cut, shattered, or crushed by its true nature. All the while we slowly grow numb to our true feelings. Thinking back on it now I would much rather catch a little frostbite in these mountains rather than suffering another day under hatred's icy precession. I could never stand to see him in any more pain, regardless of how cleverly he can hide it behind his smile. 

How warm it is, beneath these old bed sheets with him, a fire in the great. He was the only thing that had ever bothered warm the numbness that had come to live in my heart. I can feel him next to me now, his breathing slow and deep. His strong arms are wrapped around me pulling me close, and calming my mind. Sleep had taken him yet I could not yet drift off. I could hear the crackling of the fire. I could hear the wind as it whipped against our little hobble, howling in it's own indignation. I could hear the snow rasping against itself as the wind moves it. All of these sounds reminded me of what I had left behind, casting doubt on my once grateful mind. 

Had I made the right choice? Was the real reason him after all? Was I just running away from my other problems, or was I actually finding the love that I had always wanted? No, I couldn't even think of doing the former of the two. Even so the answer to that question doesn't change the uncertainty of the future. We had left the futures that were assigned to us by what we thought was our fate. Will it be worth it? I thought back through everything that has ever happened between me and him, and why we ran. I came to an answer. Will it be worth it? This moment had proven that it already was worth every ounce of suffering leading up to it. I could think of nothing but a moment, a moment I kept coming back to in my memory. It was the moment that I didn't know at the time would solidify my intentions toward him. It was the moment I truly fell. 

The moment was the first time I saw him smile, _actually tru_ _ly_ _smile._  It was also the first time I saw him shed a tear. What was it that made me fall? It was the pain behind his smile. To see someone so strong, so willful and stubborn so _vulnerable_ was truly indescribable. It made me realize that I longed for something more than I had. I made me realize that I longed for him. Most importantly it made me realize I couldn't live that way anymore. 

So regardless of what tomorrow brings I have faith that we can face it together. I hold this hope in my chest now as I slowly begin to drift off in his embrace. I am confident the day will come when there will be no pain behind his smile anymore. I hold the pieces of his heart in my hands and he holds what is left of my soul. Piece by piece and day by day is how the future will be from here. I will hold hope in my heart that we can heal each broken piece until the pain is nothing. The icy hatred we have faced can be defeated, the warmth next to me is all I need to prove that true. And if it doesn't work out like we planned? 

Well then I will still know that there was someone who loved me in this world, and that will be enough for me. I guess that a little warmth can always go further than you think. 

 

Happy Holidays.  

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Welp I hope you enjoyed this little short story here. If you are reading my other fic do not despair I am going to have the next chapter for that up by the end of the month (and lets just say things will get a bit saucy). Do please comment, I would love to read all of them (Im sorry k if you read this I know how you hate random fluff, well angsty fluff at the very least, and oneshots, you know who you are). Now that is out of the way I hope all of you have happy holidays whatever you may be celebrating, and my one wish is that you feel a sense of love and belonging. Remember that life is sometimes made perfect by its very own imperfections.


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